Zuckerberg shares his vision for Facebook's virtual reality future

Mark Zuckerberg wants everyone to be able to share and experience content in virtual reality, and his just-announced "social VR team" at Facebook are going to be the ones to make it happen.

Appearing on stage at Samsung's Mobile World Congress event -- before which he strode through a crowd of journalists all wearing VR headsets -- Zuckerberg said he wants people to be able to share content, on Facebook and other social platforms, in virtual scenarios. "This team will explore how people can connect and share using today’s VR technology, as well as long-term possibilities as VR evolves into an increasingly important computing platform," a blogpost by Facebook said, after the event. The post continued to say that the new team will work with Oculus and Samsung's Gear VR team to work out what the future of "social interactions" in VR should be.

Advertisement

The team, according to The Verge, is being led by two game developers. These include Daniel James, the co-founder of Puzzle Pirates and Three Rings Design, and also the former lead developer of Left 4 Dead, Mike Booth.

On stage Zuckberg, who has his own MWC keynote on 22 February, said: "Pretty soon we’re going to live in a world where everyone has the power to share and experience whole scenes as if you’re just there, right there in person. "Imagine being able to sit in front of a campfire and hang out with friends anytime you want. Or being able to watch a movie in a private theatre with your friends anytime you want. Imagine holding a group meeting or event anywhere in the world that you want."

Zuckerberg's brief appearance at Samsung's event shouldn't be a huge surprise, even if it wasn't billed in the event's public schedule. Samsung's Gear VR headset, which will come free with every pre-order of the new Samsung Galaxy (and costs £80 standalone), is powered by technology from the Facebook-owned Oculus Rift. Samsung also announced the Samsung Gear 360; a 360-degree camera that will help capture environments for VR recordings. "An important part of the Oculus experience is 360 videos, where you can look around and feel like you're actually in the video -- whether that means surfing in Tahiti, flying with the Blue Angels, or exploring the surface of Mars," Zuckerberg said on his Facebook page.

Advertisement

Elsewhere at Mobile World Congress HTC's VR offering was given an official price and shipping date. The HTC Vive is set to cost $799 for a limited time and will go on sale on 28 February -- shipping will being in April 2016 HTC said in a post on its website.

Virtual reality isn't Zuckerberg's only big developing tech project though, with AI also a focus. Sadly on that score they seem a little behind their competitors, in some respects: his company lost a long-running battle with Google to develop an algorithm that is capable of beating top human players at the ancient Chinese board game Go.

Away from board games Zuckerberg has also said one of his aims for 2016 is to create an AI powered butler for his home, much like that of Tony Stark's Jarvis in Iron Man.